Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 26, 2006 Page: 18 of 28
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TJP V60-43, 10-26-06 pl6-20 10/24/06 5:44 PM Page 18
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18
Texas Jewish Post
In Our 60th Year
October 26,2006
Sports
There's no Greenberg or Kou ax, but 2006 wasn : bad or Jewish players
By Martin Abramowitz
BOSTON (JTA) — One of the ways rabid
baseball fans get through end-of-the-
season withdrawal pains is by
immersing themselves in player stats
and award announcements.
It's time to do the same for Jewish
players.
There were 13 Jewish major leaguers
this season: six pitchers, two catchers,
three outfielders and two infielders.
None of them, alas, came close to
making a serious run at any major
award, but we'll remedy that situation by
handing out awards for the top Jewish
players.
First the stats. Starting pitchers:
• Jason Marquis of the St. Louis Cardi-
nals recorded his third consecutive
double-digit win season,but it was not
a particularly successful year, since he
went 14-16 with a 6.02 ERA.
• Jason Hirsh made his major-league
debut with Houston on Aug. 12 and
finished the season at 3-4, with an ERA
of 6.04,
Incidentally, his catcher on Aug. 12
was Brad Ausmus, making this what is
believed to be the first Jewish pitcher-
catcher combo since Sandy Koufax and
Norm Sherry in the early 1960s.
Relief pitchers:
■ Veteran lefty Scott Schoeneweis
appeared in 71 games for Toronto and
Cincinnati, with a record of 4-2 and an
ERA of 4.88. He was particularly effec-
tive in his 16 appearances with the
Reds, notching two wins, three saves
and an ERA of 0.63.
• Left-handed reliever John Grabow, in
his third full season with the Pirates,
pitched a total of 69-2/3 innings in 72
games, with a record of 4-2, two blown
saves and an ERA of 4.13.
■ Craig Breslow, the Yale-educated lefty
relief specialist for Boston, made his
Red Sox debut July 14 as one of three
Jewish Red Sox on the field at the same
time. He appeared in 13 games down
the stretch, finishing with a record of
0-2 and an ERA of 3.75. He was
unscored upon in 10 of 13 appear-
ances.
■ Scott Feldman, a 2005 late-season call-
up, spent most of 2006 in the bullpen
for the Texas Rangers. In 36 appear-
ances he hurled 41-1/3 innings and
was 0-2 with a 3.92 ERA.
Catchers:
■ Brad Ausmus, the "dean" of Jewish
major leaguers (he debuted in July
1993), continued as the first-string
catcher for the Astros, appearing in 139
games and batting .230, with two
homers and 39 RBIs.
• Mike Lieberthal shared catching duties
for Philadelphia, appearing in 67
games and batting .273, with nine
homers and 36 RBIs.
Outfielders:
• Shawn Green, who hit his 300th homer
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Mid-Season Moves
in 2005, notched RBI number 1,000
and hit number 1,800 in 2006, while
finishing the season with a batting
average of .277 with 15 homers and 66
RBIs. Green was traded from Arizona
to the New York Mets during the
summer, and was warmly welcomed
by the New York media and Jewish
community.
Gabe Kapler was a backup outfielder
with the Red Sox, hitting .254 in 72
games.
• Adam Stern made a few Web-gem
catches for Canada in the World Base-
ball Classic and appeared in 10
early-season games with Boston,
mostly as a pinch-runner and late-
inning defensive replacement.
Infielders:
• Three-year Red Sox veteran Kevin
Youkilis shifted from third base to
become a fine defensive first baseman
and excellent lead-off batter. "Youk"
batted .279 with 13 homers and 72
RBIs. Among Boston batters, his on-
base percentage of .381 trailed only
Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz.
• Rookie Ian Kinsler was the Texas
Rangers' regular second-sacker for vir-
tually all of 2006. He finished the
season with a .286 batting average with
14 homers and 55 RBIs.
Our solution to the drought of Jewish
award winners is to create our own
awards. We're naming the Jewish MVP
award the "Hank and Sandy" after
Greenberg and Koufax, and giving it only
in years when a Jewish player has indeed
proved to be extremely valuable.
We actually do have a winner this
year. The winner of the 2006 Hank and
Sandy Most Valuable Jewish Player
Award is incontestably Youkilis.
The Jewish Rookie of the Year is in
honor of the Jewish player with the
greatest rookie season — A1 Rosen, who
led the American League in homers in
1950 but lost out to Walt Dropo as
Rookie of the Year. The 2006 A1 Rosen
Award for Jewish Rookie of the Year goes
to Kinsler
Our annual award for Jewish pitchers
is the Pelty/Holtzman award, named for
Barney "the Yiddish Curver" Pelty, who
is the Jewish pitcher with the lowest ERA
of all time, and Ken Holtzman, the all-
time winningest Jewish pitcher.
This was a close race between Mar-
quis and Schoeneweis,but because of his
important role as the Cardinals' fifth
starter, the award goes to Marquis.
As consolation to Schoeneweis, he
shares with Shawn Green the Dave
Roberts Wandering Jew award, named in
honor of the 1970s pitcher who played
for a Jewish-record nine franchises. Both
Schoeneweis and Green are now with
their fourth major-league teams.
Martin Abramowitz produces Jewish
baseball cards and lectures and writes on
Jews in baseball. More information is
available on the Web at www.jewishma
jorleaguers.org.
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 26, 2006, newspaper, October 26, 2006; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188125/m1/18/: accessed May 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .